Friday, December 29, 2017

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.
Have a listen at iTunes, Soundcloud and YouTube.
From the website:
"*Music – Chloe Kepner*
https://chloekepner.bandcamp.com/
Well folks, it’s been one hell of a year. 2017 has had ups and downs for everyone. Although, here at “That Comic Smell” it’s been only ups.
Thank you so much everyone. We have had one hell of a year. Approached by publishers to review their books (thanks to Avery Hill and Centrala) got given other folks books out of sheer kindness (thank you Bob Turner, Rozi Hathaway Good Comics) and discovered a whole world of small press and incredible creators. None of this would have happened had it not been for doing this podcast. We have loved every minute of it. We just get together and gab each month and you folks are so kind to listen to our ramblings each time. We want to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts. Here's to the coming year, plenty more pods and whatever is ahead in the coming year, for all of us and you folks out there!
To celebrate here is our latest episode that was recorded just before Christmas where we had some dinner and talked “Calvin and Hobbes”
Afterwards we reviewed some books that we were kindly sent and some that we just really wanted to speak about.
So folks, have a great 2018 and enjoy what’s left of 2017.
Cheers.
These are some of the titles discussed:
Ismyre – B.Mure
FLD – Bob Turner
Self-Care & Vegetables – Rozi Hathaway
New York (A Holiday to Remember) – Elizabeth Querstret
SID – Olivia Sullivan
Stir Fry – Sarah Crosby
It’s Cold in the River at Night – Alex Potts
Modern Slorence: Torts and Tinder – Neil Slorance
Happy New Year!"

Sunday, December 24, 2017

What a difficult time Christmas 1979 was for Martha Connors. It was all going so well, getting ready for Christmas with her husband Curt and son Billy. In these pages she explains her predicament to Spider-Man...

I read this in the 1980 Spider-Man UK Annual. Two issues (# 165, 166) of the US comics originally published in 1977, and here presented together. No credits are given in the UK edition, but a bit of digging has told me that Len Wein wrote both parts, with Ross Andru drawing the first, and John Romita the second.

This is a great Lizard versus Stegron Christmas story. I read it over and over as a kid and am still very fond of it.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

From the website:
"On 3rd week until Christmas, the podcast gave to me... A Brand new episode and as always it's for freeeeeee!
Yes, here at 'That Comic Smell' HQ we are still counting down to Christmas with excitement. To help us wind down to the festive period we thought we would give you some brand new episodes. This is one we did a while back on Music.
In this episode we talk about all the comics that have that musical vibe or were heavily influenced by music or are just straight up tie-ins or stories about musical folks.
We show our appreciation for Shaking Stevens, Adam Ant, Bryan Ferry and many many more.
So delve on in and give this 'note' worthy pod a listen from the only folks who can gladly say that we checked Santa's list twice over with him and most of you were on it... MOST of you. We're looking at you here... Shame.
Here are some of the titles we discuss:
The Amory Wars (Claudio Sanchez, Gabriel Guzman)
The Wicked + The Divine (Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie)
Umbrella Academy (Gerard Way, Gabriel Bá)
Show Pieces (Alan Moore, Mitch Jenkins)
Lobo (Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, Simon Bisley)
The Hip-Hop Family Tree (Ed Piskor)
Bastard Bunny (Dave Anderson)
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstien Story (Vivek Tiwary, Andrew Robinson, Kyle Baker)
Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (Reinhard Kleist)
Nick Cave: Mercy on Me (Reinhard Kleist)
Castro (Reinhard Kleist)
Robo Hunter (John Wagner, Ian Gibson)
GodSpeed: Graphic Kurt Cobain Story (Barnaby Legg, Jim McCarthy, Flameboy... oh dear)
Scott Pilgrim (Bryan Lee O'Malley)
Break The Chain (Kyle Baker)
Public Enemy (Chuck D, Adam Wallenta)
Tops 1982: Adam Ant
Sex Pistols: Graphic Biography (Jim McCarthy, Steve Parkhouse)
Human Torch & The Thing meet The Beatles (Bob Powell, Stan Lee, Chris Stone)
Archie
Josey and the Pussycats
Archies Meets...[Various artists]
R.Crumb Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country
Mr Miracle (Jack Kirby)
Killing and Dying (Adrian Tomine)
Fax from Sarajevo (Joe Kubert)"